Phenol solubilization in aqueous Pluronic® solutions: Investigating the micellar growth and interaction as a function of Pluronic® composition

Structural Behavior of Amphiphilic Triblock Copolymer P104/Water System

A detailed study of the different structural transitions of the triblock copolymer PEO₂₇-PPO₆₁-PEO₂₇ (P104) in water, in the dilute and semi-dilute regions, is addressed here as a function of temperature and P104 concentration (C_P104) by mean of complimentary methods: viscosimetry, densimetry, dynamic light scattering, turbidimetry, polarized microscopy, and rheometry. The hydration profile was calculated through density and sound velocity measurements. It was possible to identify the regions where monomers exist, spherical micelle formation, elongated cylindrical micelles formation, clouding points, and liquid crystalline behavior. We report a partial phase diagram including information for P104 concentrations from 1 × 10^-4 to 90 wt.% and temperatures from 20 to 75 °C that will be helpful for further interaction studies with hydrophobic molecules or active principles for drug delivery.

Criteria Governing Rod Formation and Growth in Nonionic Polymer Micelles

Self-assembled wormlike micelles (WLMs) are widely studied in small-molecule surfactants due to their unique ability to break and recombine; however, less is known about the structure and dynamics of nonionic polymer WLMs. Here, solutions of seven triblock poloxamers, composed of poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) midblocks and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) end blocks, are comprehensively examined to determine the role of poloxamer composition, temperature, and inorganic salt type and concentration on rod formation and subsequent elongation into WLMs. Phase separation and sphere-to-rod transition temperatures were quantified via cloud point measurements and shear rheology, respectively, and corroborated with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). The local microstructure of resulting rodlike micelles is remarkably similar across poloxamer type and sodium fluoride (NaF) or sodium chloride (NaCl) content. Salt addition reduces transition temperatures, with the most pronounced effects for poloxamers with high PEO molecular weights and PEO fractions. Between these two temperatures, several poloxamers elongate into WLMs, where shear rheology detects increases in viscosity up to 6 orders of magnitude. Despite similar local microstructures, poloxamer identity and salt content impact micelle growth substantially, where large poloxamers with lower PEO fractions exhibit the highest viscosities and longest relaxation times. While sodium fluoride has little impact on micelle growth, increasing NaCl concentration dramatically increases the WLM viscosity and relaxation time. This result is explained by different interactions of each salt with the micelle: whereas NaF interacts primarily with PEO chains, NaCl may also partition to the PPO/PEO interface in low levels, increasing micelle surface tension, scission energy, and contour length.

Unusual Growth and Hydration Characteristics of Oil Solubilized Micelles in Aqueous Pluronic Systems

Lipophile induced modulations of self-assembly characteristics in aqueous Pluronic systems merit attention because of wide-ranging uses of Pluronics as solubilizing agents of lipophilic substances. In this paper, we report unusual evolutions of structural and hydration properties in lavender essential oil (LO) solubilized Pluronic P85 aqueous micellar systems as a function of micellar volume fraction and temperature. Our DLS, SANS, and viscometry studies show that the spherical-to-wormlike micellar structural transition observed in 1% P85 solutions upon solubilization of LO quite unexpectedly gets suppressed with increased P85 concentration to ≥5%. Detailed SANS studies reveal that the core sizes of the oil solubilized micelles cannot attain the threshold value required for the onset of structural transition at higher copolymer concentrations due to their progressive shrinking with an increase in P85 concentration. Oil solubilized P85 solutions show two cloud points and very interestingly exhibit micellar growth upon cooling to their lower cloud points. Steady state fluorescence studies explain this based on increasing dehydration of micellar corona with a decrease in temperature, very much opposite to what is observed in pure aqueous Pluronic systems. The results give new insight into viscous flow properties and low temperature storage possibilities of oil solubilized aqueous Pluronic systems.

Lack of a unique kinetic pathway in the growth and decay of Pluronic micelles

We report kinetic experiments on dilute brine solutions of P84, P94 and P104 Pluronic copolymer micelles. The growth and the decay of micelles after temperature steps are measured by non-standard time resolved multi-angle photon correlation spectroscopy. Several concurrent mechanisms are at work during the very slow equilibration of solutions, namely insertion/expulsion of unimers, aggregation/dissociation of micellar aggregates, and fusion/budding of micellar aggregates. Their relative rates determine both the kinetic pathways and the morphologies of the micellar assemblies, which depend markedly on modest changes in the copolymer molecular weight. For the typical Pluronic copolymers investigated here, none of these elementary processes can be neglected if the resulting morphology is to be explained. This feature imposes multiple kinetic behaviours where growth and decay of Pluronic micelles become strongly dependent on the thermal history. We point out to some possible shortcomings in the studies of micellar growth kinetics by light scattering techniques. Extensive time-resolved multiangle measurements are a prerequisite for avoiding these pitfalls.

TBP induced double cloud point in aqueous EO13PO30EO13 solutions: investigating the evolution of associated micellar characteristics as a function of temperature

TBP solubilized Pluronic L64 solutions exhibit inter-micellar attraction driven micellar cluster formation upon cooling, which is unique in non-ionic micellar systems.

Interaction, solubilization and location of p-hydroxybenzoic acid and its sodium salt in micelles of moderately hydrophilic PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymers

Micelles of ABA type triblock copolymers (where A is polyethylene oxide PEO and B is polypropylene oxide PPO) viz. Pluronic® P103, P104 and P105 (each containing almost the same PPO mol wt. ~ 3250 g/mol and 30, 40 and 50 wt.% of PEO, respectively) in the presence of p -hydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA) and its sodium salt (Na-PHBA) were examined by viscosity, dynamic light scattering (DLS), small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and NMR. Spherical polymeric micelles (apparent hydrodynamic diameter ~ 20 nm) in water at 30 °C grow in the presence of PHBA and transform into prolate-ellipsoidal shape with an increased aggregation number. The micellar transition was favored at higher PHBA concentration, temperature and for copolymers with more hydrophobicity. The PHBA salt, however, increased cloud point and showed only a marginal decrease in aggregation number even at much higher concentrations. The location of PHBA in micelle was elucidated by nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy (NOESY).

Microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography for analysis of phthalates in soft drinks

Microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC) is proposed for analysis of di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) in soft drinks. However, the instability of microemulsion is a critical issue. In this research, a novel material, Pluronic® F-127, which has the properties of polymer and surfactant, was added for stabilizing the microemulsion in the MEEKC system. Our data demonstrate that the presence of Pluronic® F-127 (0.05-0.30%) also helps enhance resolution of highly hydrophobic compounds, DBP and DEHP. The electrokinetic injection of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) including sample (-10 kV, 20 s) was introduced in this MEEKC system and this yielded about 25-fold sensitivity enhancement compared with hydrodynamic injection (1 psi, 10 s). During method validation, calibration curves were linear (r≥0.99), within a range of 75-500 ng/mL for DBP and 150-1000 ng/mL for DEHP. As the precision and accuracy assays, absolute values of relative standard deviation (RSD) and relative error (RE) in intraday (n=3) and interday (n=5) observations were less than 4.93%. This method was further applied for analyzing six commercial soft drinks and one was found containing 453.67 ng/mL of DEHP. This method is considered feasible for serving as a tool for analysis of highly hydrophobic molecules.

Solubilization of parabens in aqueous Pluronic solutions: investigating the micellar growth and interaction as a function of paraben composition

The influence of methyl paraben (MP) and butyl paraben (BP) on the aggregation characteristics of Pluronics in an aqueous medium has been investigated by DLS, SANS, viscometry, and fluorescence measurement techniques. Parabens are extensively used as preservatives in cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and food products. In this paper, we show that their influence on the restructuring and growth of Pluronics micelles vary quite significantly with their aqueous solubility and with the composition of Pluronics. In the case of P105 and P104, MP reduces the sphere-to-rod transition temperature down to room temperature, but BP with significantly less aqueous solubility than MP suppresses such micellar transition and leads to the formation of micellar clusters due to the onset of intermicellar attractive interaction. In the case of more hydrophobic Pluronic P103, on the other hand, both MP and BP are able to induce rapid room temperature sphere-to-rod micellar growth, which is not observed in the presence of water structure making salts like NaCl and Na(3)PO(4). These observations have been attributed to modulation of growth and restructuring processes of the Pluronic micelles arising due to different locations of parabens within the micellar corona as determined by their aqueous solubility and the hydrophobicity of the Pluronics.